Call-out for a Freelance Creative Producer

Background 

Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM) is a regional museum, art gallery and archives service. We manage nine museums and galleries across Tyneside and the Archives for Tyne and Wear. 

We are supported by the four local authorities in Tyneside and Newcastle University. TWAM is also a National Portfolio Organisation funded by Arts Council England. 

We hold collections of international importance in archives, art, science and technology, archaeology, military and social history, fashion and natural sciences. 

We deliver a number of regional programmes, including the Regional Cultural Learning programme, which aims to continue the legacy of the Culture Bridge North East programme, linking the cultural and education sectors together to ensure that children and young people benefit from access to excellent cultural learning opportunities.

Objectives of this consultancy

TWAM Regional Cultural Learning Team, in partnership with North of Tyne Combined Authority, are seeking to appoint a freelance Creative Producer to work with us from October 2023 until July 2024 on an exciting new programme for schools.

Deadline for submission of proposals

5pm on Friday 15 September 2023.

Brief

In our Cultural Match programme, early career teachers (ECTs) will identify an existing or emerging need within their school. They will be given a £3,000 budget to work with a Creative Producer and their pupils, to address this need through a cultural and creative response. The Creative Producer will match up each school with a local cultural venue to develop a long-term partnership.

The teachers will work with the Creative Producer to look at how they can meaningfully develop arts engagement in school, to address the current needs of their pupils. We are inviting schools to submit proposals that identify a key issue faced by their school, and how arts and culture could be used to address this issue. We will then select 12 schools to work with the Creative Producer, who will challenge them to develop their cultural provision, from wherever their starting point, and support them in building relationships with Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums venues and/or other cultural venues in the region.

We will focus work on remote schools, those in areas of high deprivation, those experiencing poor transport links and those with barriers to engagement with cultural activity and allocate £3,000 per school for delivery of activity. This funding can be used to pay for coaches and visits to cultural venues as well as other project costs.

In addition to supporting the projects in each school, the Creative Producer will also develop and host three peer network sessions for all the ECTs involved and their school mentors as well as produce and deliver an initial half day CPD session looking at brokering cultural partnerships and developing pupils' cultural capital. This part of the brief can be applied for separately if appropriate.

After the programmes end, schools will then be asked to share their learning by hosting a CPD session at our flagship TWAM Imagine If… conference in 2024, enabling them to further develop their own expertise as cultural leaders.

We designed the Cultural Match programme because we know that cultural capital is a significant tool that young people can use to achieve success in life – broadening experiences and promoting character-building qualities and skills. Engaging in cultural activity increases confidence, encourages self-expression, and broadens understanding of the world.

However, we realise that today’s early career teachers trained at least partially during the restrictions of the pandemic, which may have impacted on their confidence to work in partnership with the cultural sector to provide a wide range of opportunities for their pupils. The project aims to increase the confidence of ECTs in creating partnerships with cultural organisations.

Cultural Match: Aims

1. To connect children and young people, schools and communities with art and cultural opportunities and experiences in response to their needs.
2. To increase the participation of pupils in cultural activities, enable them to visit cultural venues, and increase cultural capital.
3. To identify and develop creative responses to key issues faced by schools.
4. To connect with ECTs and build their confidence in working in partnership with cultural organisations.
5. To include opportunities for ECTs to share the learning with their wider staff teams in school.
6. To culminate in the sharing of learning as the key focus of Imagine If 2024, TWAM’s annual cultural learning conference.
7. To enable North of Tyne Combined Authority and TWAM to further identify and understand the current key issues faced by schools, support schools to respond to this, and roll out findings.

Administrative and communication support are available to the Creative Producer from the TWAM Regional Cultural Learning team.

Timescale

Proposals must be received by 5pm on Friday 15 September 2023

• Interviews will take place on the morning of Thursday 28 September 2023
• Project development - October 2023 – December 2023
• Project delivery – January 2024 to July 2024
• CPD session development and delivery – Thursday 26 October 2023
• 3x peer network sessions (December 2023, March 2024, July 2024)

Procurement

The deadline for submission of proposals is 5pm on Friday 15 September 2023. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to interview via Zoom on Thursday 28 September 2023

Quotation assessment

There is a fixed price (inclusive of VAT) for this work, including all time, travel, subsistence and other costs

Budget

Project work - 48 days' work for project development and delivery at £250 per day = £12,000

CPD Development and delivery - 12 days’ work to produce and deliver CPD and peer network sessions at £250 per day = £3,000

This can also be applied for as two separate roles.

Total £15,000

(N.B. Additional budget of £3,000 per school will be available via each chosen school for the delivery of programmes developed as part of this work.)

Proposals

Based upon the information we have provided and the outputs we have stipulated in this brief, explain how you would propose to undertake this commission and outline the programme for delivery. Please provide details of how you propose to deliver this work, including:

• How the commission will be delivered.
• How you will communicate and collaborate with TWAM’s Regional Cultural Learning Team
• Your experience of work relevant to this commission.

Please submit your proposal, on no more than two sides of A4, by email to: charlotte.dack@twmuseums.org.uk

Proposals must be received by 5pm on Friday 15 September 2023.

Contact

If you have any questions or would like an informal discussion about this work, please contact charlotte.dack@twmuseums.org.uk to arrange a call.

This brief can be downloaded - Creative Producer - Cultural Match (PDF, 227 KB)